The More I Learn, The Less I Know
Love Isn’t Offended!
Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have they that love your law for nothing, by any means, shall offend them.”
God’s law is that we love – Him and one another. So, those who love God and one another will definitely demonstrate the character or presence of being that can’t be offended? Perhaps that is what is behind the scripture that says, “He thought little of the shame” while being crucified.
Is it possible that the less I am offended the greater my ability to love? In the kingdom, the more I learn, the less I know!
“For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross…”
He knew that one heck of a lot of people would be receiving an eternal way of being through his blood sacrifice on the cross, then the father raising him from the dead, and then his subsequent being whisked away into heaven.
It seems that with Jesus, and his sphere of being in love, there is always a big picture of abundance preceded by his being unoffended by suffering.
He gets a kick out of people entering into a new freedom of being, himself being among that number – it must be fabulous being a man alive from the dead and heading up an eternal kingdom.
I hear you. He is “motivated” by the impact of his actions so much so that it enables to walk through suffering of all kinds, like humiliation and injustice with no offense.
What amazed me that fear is always in the mix. Jesus sweat great drops of blood and angels were dispatched to comfort him. He was scared out of his mind.
Entering fear with the possibility of going out of mind and losing it for the sake of others… – that’s courage, which ends up being a gift of love to God, myself, and to mankind.
It’s all very crazy. That’s one of the things I love about the Bible, it provides a framework of sensability for the craziness and paradox we call life and love.
From the O.T. there is the “floating axeheads/killer bears.”
Elijah comes to the rescue, prays, and an axhead floats up from the bottom of the river. In the next scene some kids are giving him a hard time about being bald, and two she-bears come out of nowhere to maul the children.
From the N.T., God becomes a man.
Go figure.
I believe the less offended, the more love, certainly! I do find myself being less and less offended as I work to be more loving. Even the definition of “offense” lies in things outside of love. Offense can actually get in the way of authentic love.
I’ve often dreamed of the Body of Christ being a place where people can come to be part of something, regardless of where they come from. This Body would embrace them and accept them. This Body would empower them spiritually and help them understand relationship with God and Christ and demonstrate this tangibly to them. Individuals would be open to share their lives and where they feel they fall short. We walk with them and work with them on areas in their lives that God is working on in them. We don’t dictate what they should do, we don’t give them knowledge of good and evil. We love them. Can it be done?
The law leaves us unfulfilled, just as the knowledge provided by the tree in the garden. We must understand that God said our eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would lead to our death. In a way, we must understand that continuing to eat from the law, this unfulfilled mandate, is the continuation of death in our lives. I’m becoming to see this as a reality in my own life. How much I’ve had to rid my mind of mentalities focused on knowledge of good and evil.
If I made a list of what is evil today that was completely comprehensive, I promise you I’d find 7 things to add to it tomorrow. The knowledge will always be unfulfilling and always help us fall short. It is only Christ in us that empowers us beyond this knowledge. All things are before Christ and in Christ all things are held together. What does it mean for Christ to hold all things together? All things.
I think it means that He is not offended by what He holds together in love. He does not respond in offense, but in love.
I see that the two, offense and love, are at odds with each other.